Consumers and athletes purchase footwear for use in athletic activities such as running, cross training, soccer, football, baseball, basketball, tennis, walking. The shoes can affect the performance and contribute to their overall success in an athletic event for the wearer. Cleated athletic shoes, and particularly soccer shoes, conventionally include a sole and an upper extending upwardly from the sole and into which the foot of the athlete is positioned and secured in place. In addition, cleats are secured to the sole and extend downwardly from the sole to provide the traction of the shoe when the athlete runs. In conventional cleated shoes, the shape and location of the cleats are generally uniform throughout the sole. Such designs, however do not address the demands and requirements of the sport they relate for performance and reduction of injury for the athlete.
Conventional soccer shoes suffer from several drawbacks. One drawback of these shoes concerns increased impact force acting on the foot at the discrete cleat locations. This problem generally results from the relatively high ground impact forces that the shoe experiences when the athlete runs over firm ground playing fields/artificial turf or during foot planting movements. In general, the interaction of the forces on the sole causes adverse reactions, such as deforming and pressing upwardly against the bottom of the athlete's foot. This reactive action undesirably creates a condition known as “point loading” or “stud pressure” on the bottom of the athlete's foot at the discrete cleat locations. Over a period of continual use, this point loading may result in foot discomfort, fatigue, and inefficiency of footwork action.
A particular problem occurs in the forefoot area or forward portion of the conventional soccer shoes. The metatarsal bones have a forwardly disposed head portion that is susceptible to injury, in particular, the first metatarsal head. The interaction of impact forces, transferred through a cleat or a number of cleats may adversely affect the first metatarsal head. Unfortunately, some designs can cause additional injuries to the foot due to the excessive point loading from the cleats. Continual impact of the cleats into the ground may aggravate bone soreness in the first metatarsal head. Undesirably, some athletes may reduce their foot strike when they run to avoid the soreness. The reduced foot strikes results in a loss of propulsion and foot stability. While a sockliner may be used to reduce the stud pressure, the sockliner does not enhance the cleat performance or remove all the force impact. Therefore, it is desirable to avoid this transfer stud pressure to reduce injury.
Another drawback of conventional cleated shoes involves cleats that may interfere with the flexibility movement of the phalanges bones and the metatarsal bones of a wearer's foot. This interference can cause discomfort, fatigue, and injury. It is desirable to not interfere with the running sequence, but to enhance performance by providing a shoe with cleats in positions relative to the bones that improves traction control. Thus, there is a need for an article of footwear that overcomes deficiencies of certain athletic shoes, including, but not limited to deficiencies found in conventional cleated shoes intended for the sport of soccer.